BAY AREA REPORT -- EAST BAY / Carjacking Suspect Flees After Chase

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, June 8, 1995

Berkeley -- A motorist was slightly injured when a suspected carjacker fleeing from Berkeley police caused a spectacular three-car crash in North Oakland before escaping early yesterday.

The trouble began at 10:23 p.m. Tuesday when a teenager approached a 30-year-old Texas man pumping gas in the 1800 block of University Avenue, brandished a pistol and demanded the keys to his Jeep Grand Cherokee, Deputy Police Chief Roy Meisner said.

The carjacker sped off south on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Officers spotted the Jeep minutes later near 63rd Street and chased it as the driver wove through traffic and ran red lights. At one point, the Jeep ended up on a dead-end street, and the driver put the car in reverse, ramming a patrol car.

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The Jeep continued south on Martin Luther King, plowing into a parked Cadillac at 28th Street before careening into a Dodge van, which flipped over several times, police said. Ira Fair, 47, of Oakland, suffered a broken hand in the collision, which left bumper parts, luggage and debris littered over an entire block.

The carjacker climbed out of the mangled Jeep, hopped a fence and disappeared.